smart move imo focus on being healthy/productive me likey... With 20-20 hindsight, Matt Kemp distances himself from 50-50 talk by Tim Brown/Yahoo! | 18 hours agoMatt Kemp was limited to 106 games last season because of injuries. (AP) GLENDALE, Ariz. – Fifty-fifty? Matt Kemp says he was kidding. That's too bad. For one, no he wasn't. For another, his quest for 50 homers and 50 steals was a rare, antagonistic and cool swipe at the baseball spirits, who did indeed take out Kemp at the knee, the hamstring and the shoulder. Them and the wall at Coors Field. You set out for 50-50. They send you and the ball into a fence together, see who walks away. "That was a joke!" he insisted recently of the 50-50 talk. Nope. Not buying it. In fact, I'd bet he's after it again. Only, saying stuff like that aloud tends to summon the baseball beat-down gods and, sure enough, they took Kemp apart last season, piece by piece. Fifty homers, huh? That'll cost you a shoulder. Fifty steals? We'll take that hammy. Still playing? Need that knee, pal? "I'm not making no predictions," he said. Any other ideas? Oh boy. Due to the injuries, Kemp's 50-50 season came to speak more of the nightly odds he'd be in the lineup. He posted instead a 23-9 season over 106 games, many of those spent at half-speed because of the hamstring and knee or at half-strength because of the shoulder, which required offseason surgery. He'd been the best player in the game, or something close to it, and then hobbled to and from the ballpark for the better part of four months. He ended the season having difficulty starting his swing or finishing it, 50-50 by then lost in a slog of games logged in the trainer's room and hours honoring pain management. The best part of the Dodgers' season had been Kemp's 50-50 assertions, then seeing him show up on May 1 with 12 home runs, batting .417 and needing to get his running game going. He had a shot. Had he stayed upright, a real shot. "He'd had a great year," Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said of 2011, when Kemp went 39-40 in 161 games. "He wanted to stretch it further. I thought it was a healthy thought process." But, 50-50? Calling one of the great seasons of all time? "You know," Colletti said, "I don't see why not." Instead, Kemp returned to the Los Angeles Dodgers last month in the final stages of recovery, the labrum and rotator cuff in his left shoulder repaired. He stood in the Dodgers clubhouse, a place also inhabited by the likes of freshies Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford, Hanley Ramirez and Zack Greinke. He is lighter than he was a year ago when the Dodgers themselves were a touch light … on talent, on cash, on dignity. He had his first at-bats of the spring Friday, grounding out and striking out against San Diego Padres righty Freddy Garcia. He served as the designated hitter, and, in terms of regular at-bats and time in center field, he'll creep up on opening day. Earlier Friday, the club said Crawford, the left fielder recovering from Tommy John surgery, would rest for at least a week after experiencing nerve irritation in the same elbow. While Crawford might yet show up on opening day or soon thereafter, the news confirmed the notion that after the pitching staff, the critical piece of the Dodgers is Kemp – healthy, spirited, and chasing … something. For all new ownership has paid out, and Colletti has executed, the best player on the field is going to be Kemp. If he is not, then the NL West gets even more difficult, and October for the Dodgers could be a strain. So, 50-50… "Heh, what a question…" Kemp said. But, you know… "Um, me, I'm not worried about numbers," he said. "As long as I'm on the field, the numbers probably will be – or should be – there. I just want to stay healthy, that's it. Everything's strong. I've been working on my legs. Hamstrings feeling good. Shoulder's feeling good. I'm just working on staying healthy this whole year, playing 162 games." A year ago, he'd said of 50-50, "I know what I'm capable of doing. … I have confidence I can achieve it. … I think I'm capable of doing it." And everyone thought, you know, he might be right. He could do it. He'd led the league in home runs. He was second in steals. He'd be 27, just arriving at his prime. He'd played in 399 consecutive games, so he'd almost certainly be out there every day, and every inning of every day, and he'd grown into the kind of player – the kind of man – who'd play to the last inch of those days. So, 50-50? Ah, Matt Kemp isn't so worried about that anymore. What comes, comes. Besides, he'd just been fooling around, having a good time, telling folks what they wanted to hear. Just show up, stay healthy, let it play out. Fifty-fifty? Kemp shook his head. He says he's not after that. And I don't believe him. __
one thing for sure kemp needs to stay away from this crazy bkitch she is seriously fucked up in the head... Rihanna Opens Up About Why She Got Her Gun Tattoo By Jeremy Blacklow | omg! – 19 hours agoThink what you’d like about Rihanna’s horrible Grammys weekend of 2009 … but she’s moved on completely from that dark period in her life. And in a very candid new interview with Elle U.K., the “Stay” singer is opening up about how she feels more empowered than ever right now. In new photos for the mag shot in Paris by Mariano Vivanco, Rihanna prominently displays the gun tattoo that she inked on the right side of her torso just months after she was beaten up by boyfriend Chris Brown. "Everybody wanted to know what was happening in my life. Is she a drug addict? No. Is she an alcoholic? No. Is she a victim? No," she tells the mag. "That's why I got the gun. It was a symbol of strength. I'll never be a victim." And that’s not the only gun tattoo that Rihanna, who just turned 25 last week, has on her body. She also sports an Egyptian-like falcon in the shape of a gun on one of her feet, ink that she got last summer just days after Brown got in a scuffle with the rapper Drake at a NYC nightclub. “Falcon s--t!!!!” she tweeted in June 2012, following up with, “Falcon: a light that shines in the darkness! Never close their eyes during sleep.” Rihanna talks with Elle U.K. reporter Mark Allen about how this period in her life feels like a “fresh start” with Brown, and goes on to say that in five years, she sees herself with a child … which we can only assume she’d want with her “Don’t Wake Me Up” singer beau. "I will probably have a kid," she tells the mag. "Right now, that's just what we want, a great friendship, that's unbreakable," she continues. "Now that we're adults we can do this right. We got a fresh start and we're thankful for that." RiRi also opens up in the interview about other topics, ranging from her music and touring, to her “now-infamous 777 plane trip” – aka: the publicity trip from hell for journalists around the world. And being that this is Elle, she talks all about her burgeoning fashion designing career. Elle U.K.’s spread shows off RiRi’s spring/summer 2013 River Island fashion collection – her first ever -- which she premiered recently at London Fashion Week. On one cover, she dons a black, zip-through River Island skirt paired with a Louis Vuitton monochrome top. And on the other, a striped bra from the same collection peeking out from Prada’s silk and satin stole The April issue of Elle U.K. hits newsstands on Wednesday, March 6. __
Matt wasn't joking about 50-50, we all know that. But he will never get it because he will never even steal 30 bases again in a season. With the potential for hammy injuries and the stacked lineup he will be with for the rest of his career in Blue, there will be no reason to steal so many bases. 50 HR's is another story though.
